Government Sets Up Committee To Collaborate With Private Sector On Healthcare Equipment Production

The Centre has set up an empowered group chaired by the NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant to undertake discussions with the private sector for collaboration on producing health equipment and personal protection equipment (PPE).

“The committee has opened up cross-sectoral dialogue within the private sector and startups to engender collaboration among them to produce health equipment and PPEs,” a press release by the government said.

Startups, namely, AgVa, Biodesign Innovation Lab, Kaeaenaat, Qure AIDrona Maps, mFine, MicroGo and Staqu — working on innovative ventilator design, testing tools and tracking solutions — have been contacted separately to understand their scale and possible contributions.

The empowered group had detailed meetings with United Nations’ resident coordinator for India, and country heads of the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and the Asian Development Bank, among others.

Following the discussions, UN in India has built and submitted a joint programme response plan to the NITI Aayog, defining their clear activities and deliverables in different sectors and states, where they are partnering with union ministries and state governments.

Industry representatives have also shared details of activities undertaken by them in public advocacy, philanthropy and under corporate social responsibility.

Apart from ways to step up relief and rehabilitation and information dissemination, discussions were also held on other aspects like ramping up production and procurement of ventilators, PPEs and testing kits. Further, synergies have been created by linking specific issues that were raised, by connecting the industry to other empowered groups dealing with procurement and logistics.-Money Control